The White Part of Christmas

The coolest thing happened in the South this Christmas:


It was so nice that even though we weren't able to go out to the Northwest this year, we still got a taste of the pretty part of winter weather! Although honestly we're getting plenty in Virginia this year too!

The day after Christmas church was cancelled, so we headed down to our friends the Pruetts' for food and singing and pretty snow.

Brody's First Christmas

We thought Brody's first Christmas was going to be quiet, just Ellis, me, and 2 sets of Brody's great grandparents, but God had other plans and Brody ended up getting to see the whole Littlejohn side of the family plus Anderson greatgrandparents!

He even got to see Uncle Brad!! Sadly Rachel and Soren weren't able to make it, but we were excited to get to see Brad! Brad, Matt, Ellis, Brody, and I stayed with Grandmama at her house, and I had a BLAST getting to hang out with my brothers!! Matt made us watch Shutter Island, which I was terrified to see, but he assured me that it wasn't scary. I spent the whole movie doubting him and waiting to be scared, but he was right! I don't know why the previews make it look like a horror movie, but I LOVED it! No boy will ever agree with me about this, but I liked it better than Inception!


Abbou, Ami, and Tammi came down and Tammi gave Brody an awesome Monster-themed gift, which he loved, but not as much as the wrapping paper, of course. :)


And Emily introduced him to one of our favorite childhood toys, the back-flipping doggy! This dog (and it's previous editions) has been a part of my Christmas since before I can remember!

Ellis, Brody, and I headed up to Asheville to see Ellis' Anderson grandparents in Black Mountain. We LOVE the cute town of Black Mountain, and every time we go there, I always tell Ellis I want to move there!Here Brody and I are at a fantastic Black Mountain restaurant called My Father's Pizza! YUM!

While Ellis and Brody were hanging out with his grandparents, I slipped away to join Mom and Julie at Chelsea's Tea Room, where we've been going at Christmastime for at least 10 years--we always get the same waittress, and I think we must've spilled something big a few years ago, because she didn't seem to like us. She warmed up to us a lot, though, when I told her their almond scones were the most amazing scones I've ever had and that I look forward to them every year and have the cookbook, but have never been able to duplicate them. (No joke--they are the best things EVER.

Christmas Eve we were able to move up to the mountain house my parents rent out. It had been occupied for most of the visit, but it was great to get the whole family together in one spot for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

Julie found various fake tree limbs (not from the same tree set) in the basement, stuffed the limbs in a basket, and voila, adorable Christmas tree. Here's Emily decorating it.


Meanwhile, Ellis and Brody did some dancing.


And Matthew smiled in a pic!! I can make one prediction for sure about 2011--this picture will be in the 2011 edition of Mom's Shutterfly photobook. :)

Christmas morning.

Brody dressed up at Grandmama's house. Again, no shoes--toes are cuter anyway. :)

Partway through the afternoon Brody's Christmas turned white, so here he is in his snowsuit! Snow pics to come soon!

Brody's First Snow Day

I know for everyone out West, you will think this doesn't count as a snow day. But in Va Beach, this was a BIG DEAL. Plus, I got these first thing in the morning, and then it actually snowed more later, but then I didn't want to go back out. You know me and cold. PLUS, you have no idea how many times I had to put his boots back on in just the 5-10 minutes we were outside. I generally don't ever bother putting shoes or socks on Brody, cause he just kicks them off--the only time I put them on him is when other people are going to see him, so they don't think I'm a bad mom or something. ;)

Check out his scratch. He loves to mutilate both me and himself at every opportunity. I have multiple red marks all over my face right now.

Oh, and I finally finished his new hat. He has mittens too, but he just takes them off.

Brody loves snow!

And...just to kill 2 birds with one stone, we'll call this DPP Day 13. :)

December Photo Project--the weekend

relaxing winter treats

DPP--December 8/9/10

Some days during finals I just don't have my computer, so I can't upload pics, but here are some pics from Brody's and my walk yesterday.




Brody got sick of being out in the cold and so he glared at me pitifully and accusingly until we went inside.

Oh oh! One more pine cone idea!

I just finished playing around with some pine cones as a centerpiece, wasn't really happy, so I walked away and took a break, and JUST NOW happened to find another great idea for pine cones and hopefully a solution for my lackluster table. And it comes from one of my favorite sources ever, Sunset magazine. LOVE Sunset!

Snowy Pinecone Centerpiece

It'll be so great to pretend we actually have snow here! And the best part is I already have white acrylic paint and a paint sponge out because I finally finished my tree painting!

(Check out other fun pine cone ideas here) :)

December Photo Project--Dec. 7

You may be picking up on the trend that all my photos so far have been interior photos. My friend Abby says she likes to avoid shooting inside if at all possible, so I know I should get outside. And I've been meaning to every day, but the truth is when I'm outside in the cold I can't concentrate on anything but getting from inside point A to inside point B. That's how much of a wimp I am. I'll work on it... :)

Dec 6--Baking Bread with Londyn

December Photo Project, 12/6: today Londyn and I made bread!

Shutterfly Christmas

The first year we were married, I didn't get around to thinking about Christmas cards until Christmas Eve or so, so I made about 50 Valentines to make up for it (which I still love to do!). But last year I put on my grown-up shoes and sent out Christmas cards. And this year I think we're gonna do it again, and I'm HOPING to step it up a notch and put in a Christmas letter, but we'll see... :)

Also, I'm super excited to be doing our cards through Shutterfly this year! Of all the companies out there I've seen doing Christmas cards, Shutterfly has by far the cutest and widest selection. I had fun making 15 different Christmas cards options on their website, and I'm sure I could make 15 more that I loved just as much! Another great perk is that they are offering 50 free Christmas cards to bloggers! Check it out here!

So of the 15 I made, here are my top 6. I'd love help deciding which one to send! Let me know which you like best!

Merry Eiferts

Regent Steps

Happy Pants

Merriest

Holly Peppermint

Most Wonderful Time

(the look of this one makes me think of A Christmas Story, hehe)

Shutterfly's products are a huge hit in my family--one of my mom's favorite pastimes is making photo books for the grandparents. She has made them for both my brother Brad's and my weddings, for hers and Dad's 25th anniversary trip, and just to document the events of the year for the grandparents. I've never made one, but I think it is a terrific tradition and am looking forward to (and putting off) making my first one this year.

Littlejohn Christmas mornings have been full of Shutterfly's photo products for years--in addition to the photo books, my mom has done mugs with wedding photo collages (and seriously, the photos don't ever fade) and calendars for the grandparents. They also make awesome prints--I love creating an album and then just shipping the prints directly to Brody's great-grandparents without having to go to the post office!

Go to their website and have fun playing around with your pics!

Photos in the cards taken by Vintage Button Photography--she does an amazing job! Thanks, Abby!

December 4 and 5

I totally missed yesterday....I took pics, but Ellis and I share my laptop, and during finals I pretty much don't see my laptop, so I just didn't have the opportunity to upload pics! But here are two, one for yesterday, and one for today!



Hopefully tomorrow I will play around outside with the camera. A friend gave me some good tips tonight too--basically not to try to play with all the settings at once until I know what I'm doing.

Now to watch some of our favorite show, Friday Night Lights!

December 3

Hopefully in 2 weeks I will look back on these pics and be embarrassed.

One of the things I'm super excited to do with my new camera is to actually take pictures of food and projects as I go along. So here is a yummy cupcake (which Ellis is eating right this very second) from a local bakery called La Chocolatier.


Also, as a runner up for today, this may not look very impressive, but you have no idea how hard it was for me to stand still enough to get this view of our cozy courtyard this clear. I was braced against the side of our building holding my breath.

December Photo Project

My friend Ali is participating in this awesome project called the December Photo Project. Basically, just post a photo a day for the first 25 days of December.

Normally I would think this was an awesome idea, but be scared to participate for fear of starting and doing about 5 days worth and then stopping and forgetting to finish up. BUT....the 1st of December happens to coincide with my first day with my new camera!

Here is me with my amazing new toy.



I pooled my birthday money to get a Nikon d40, which I've been wanting FOREVER. I love that it is only 1.5 pounds, as opposed to most DSLRs, which are like at least 4 pounds. That actually was the selling point for me. I haven't gotten an opportunity to play with the settings too much yet, but I'm reading the manual and then my friend Kara showed me a fun resource called the Digital Photography School which has a lot of great articles and tips!

So anyway, I figured the December Photo Project would be a perfect opportunity to motivate me to explore things with my new camera!

I'm a day late starting, but here is a pic of a screw hook I got for one of my pine cone crafts! Nothing glamorous, but I'm loving the general lack of grain that was ever-present in my Kodak EasyShare shots. :)